Many of us remember the great and wonderful Tunku Abdul Rahman.

I recall an incident in Penang in the early years immediately after Merdeka. The Tunku's car hit a stray cow that suddenly bolted across the road as the PM's convoy was passing a village. The traumatised owner of the animal, an old Indian man, was frightened at the damage done to the PM's vehicle, apart from the loss of an important family asset.

The police outriders and the occupants of several accompanying cars started to chastise the poor cow herder for his 'irresponsibility'. But the Tunku would have none of this blaming, stepping out of his car to personally comfort the old man. Those of us teenage bystanders who witnessed this heard him ordering o­ne of his officers to compensate the Indian man for his loss. Such was the magnanimity of the Tunku.

Some years later I again witnessed another interesting aspect of the Tunku. He had flown to Alor Star o­n an Air Force plane for an official visit, and o­n his return to Kuala Lumpur was observed to have a small cardboard carton of goat meat. Making polite talk, he explained to the Air Force duty officer who met him that he took the opportunity of the visit to purchase the mutton in his home town because "it was very much cheaper there compared to KL".

This was the Prime Minister of Malaysia, the No 1 political person of the country, showing his need to get cheap mutton! This revelation of the 'common man' in Tunku made a very strong impression o­n me. Here was a VVIP who was certainly in touch with what the average man had to cope with in his daily grind.

When Tunku started writing his own column in The Star , he related another interesting incident. When asked by the Saudi king to be the secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, he related he initially declined as he felt he wasn't the correct Muslim for such a position, confessing to the king that he liked the occasional imbibing and poker game. The Tunku had never pretended he didn't have some human weaknesses.

However, the king insisted, telling the Tunku that he was asked to be the secretary-general of the OIC, not the imam of Mecca. I believe even the Saudi king recognised Tunku for his greatness in his humility.

When the Tunku left office, thus relinquishing his political powers, his friends continued to stand by him. You may always judge a man by what friends he continued to have when he was no longer in a position to confer benefits to them. Dearly missed, never forgotten.